Love the way you lie
by LadyPalma
Summary: Henry is in love with Anne Boleyn and Catherine's time as a Queen is almost over... But is it really as it seems? Or maybe there's still hope for the King and the Queen? / Multi-chapters based on the song "Love the way you lie" by Eminem and Rihanna...
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! This is my new story for this fandom, but the first multi-chapter one with this pairing (the first with a CANON pairing, I think, LoL) It's based on the song "Love the way you lie - part 2" by Eminem and Rihanna and it will be about 5 - 6 chapters. So, see you at the end of the chapter ;)**

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**1. But you'll always be my hero**

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**On the first page of our story,  
the future seemed so bright**

"_Henry, please! Tell me what you're hiding from me!"_

_This was the request that Catherine kept on repeating on that warm and sunny day of May. Curiosity filled her voice, but there wasn't impatience in the steps of the King, who, keeping her hand in his, was taking her to see something that he defined as a "surprise". The umpteenth surprise, truth be told: if there was something that the young Queen could complain of, it couldn't surely be lack of attention._

"_Et voilà!" Henry suddenly exclaimed in perfect French, stopping._

_In front of them, there was the stand of the joust, prepared for the King of France' s imminent arrival. The curtains had been changed, but Catherine couldn't notice nothing new except that. She looked up to her husband, that as only answer simply smiled, exhorting her to approach the curtains further. Oh yes, now she could clearly see the particular and call it a surprise, was an euphemism: two letters intertwined showed up endless times on the woven. C & H, Catherine and Henry, as a symbol of their love._

_That's what the old Lewis XII would have seen of the English Court, that's what the rest of Europe would have known about the two most beautiful King and Queen of the world. That they were in love._

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**Then this thing turned out so evil…  
I don't know why I'm still surprised**

"Your Majesty, is it alright?"

Catherine turned around and her new lady Elizabeth Darrell's worried face replaced the happy one of her husband. She regained slowly contact with reality and weakly nodded, while a little smile appeared on her lips. It was kind of funny how a girl she knew only for some months was actually the person who showed her more loyalty. She closed for a moment her eyes, trying to take back the far memory, but she knew that it would have been vain. The curtains of the joust in her vain memories were disappeared and she knew that they would have no longer be there neither materially. The King had just passed in front of the stand and he had asked his favors to Anne Boleyn, there in front of everyone… And no one had seemed astonished, she wasn't astonished as well, truth be told. They all said he was making follies for that lady who had stolen his heart, but half of that too young Court, couldn't know that for her he had made more follies, really more. But now it all didn't matter, because now Henry desired another woman, and because Anne Boleyn was the one he told everyone he was in love with.

That's what Francis I, Lewis's young son, would have seen, that's what the rest of Europe would have know of the two most problematic King and Queen of the world. That once upon a time they had been in love.

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**Even angels have their wicked schemes  
and you take that to new extremes**

The joust finished as it had started but Anne's favors didn't bring victory to the King. It sounded kind of ironic, since with the Queen's favors he always won instead. There must have been something with lucky, destiny, maybe it was even God who showed how that couple couldn't have been blessed, even if it didn't seem so looking now at them dancing in the centre of the Hall. Even Catherine looked at them, as you watch a paint seen and more seen, but that don't stop to give you some kind of emotion – any kind of emotion – as you don't get tired of watch a sunset even it makes you sad. And that scene was her sunset, after all.

"Your Majesty!" Charles said bowing in front of her and sitting on the empty chair at her side.

"Your Grace!" the Queen answered, slightly bowing her head and smiling widely to her husband's best friend, who had become lately unexpected also one of hers.

"It's indecent!" he whispered after a while.

It was needless to ask what he was referring to, they all were seeing the same scene. Like the womanizer he was, Charles always encouraged Henry's little affairs, but that wasn't an affair, that was a challenge, an affront and the duke couldn't understand who he wanted to hit, behaving in such a way.

Catherine closed her eyes for some moments, but didn't answer.

"You should do something" he continued with a smile, while an idea came into his mind.

"And what?" she asked, turning her head "The King doesn't want me anymore. It's over, I suppose" she said trying to keep calm, while every word that came out of her mouth sound like a stab.

"Henry still loves you and still desire you, I'm sure of it" Charles replied, nodding thoughtful.

"Ah Charles! I always liked your intuition, but I'm afraid this time you are wrong!" she exclaimed forcing a small joyless laugh.

"Let's see then!" he simply said, after some moments of silence, taking the Queen's hand and leading her in the centre of the Hall.

Now it was Catherine's turn to be seen and Henry's turn to watch. Because a thing was for sure: with a vexed smile and a n astonished glance, he was watching, indeed staring at them.

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**But you'll always be my hero  
even though you've lost your mind**

She couldn't remember when was the last time she had danced, but a year had gone for sure. For a moment all the eyes were fastened on her and she knew that among those eyes, there were also Henry's blue ones. It didn't make the news the fact he was dancing with Charles Brandon: who her partner was didn't matter because, even thought people knew Charles's reputation, they didn't doubt at all Catherine's one. But was it what Henry was thinking too? That was all Catherine was asking herself, and that was what Charles was asking himself too.

"Your brilliant plan was to make him jealous, wasn't it?" she asked, slightly frowning.

"It seems it's working" he answered smiling pleased, giving a quick look to his best friend.

The Queen shook her head smiling, telling him to stop, but she couldn't avoid anyway to give herself a look in Henry's direction.

"Can I ask you something?" the duke asked, calling her attention and becoming suddenly serious "How could you still love me after all this time, after all he did to you?"

"He's my Sir Loyal Heart, even if he's not anymore, do you understand?" she finally said with a bitter smile.

Loyal wasn't of course the word that could define Henry, but she liked to believed that at least at the beginning he had been loyal and faithful for real and that he had had every intention to remain it until the end. She still loved him for the memories of their past together and for the hope she still had in the future, even if it seemed more and more utopian; she loved him even if he wasn't anymore her Sir Loyal Heart, even if he wasn't loyal at all, even if it maybe there wouldn't have been no more a place for her in his heart.

And when their eyes met, it seemed to Catherine to go back for a moment to that far day of May, when his eyes were only on her, when they were enough for each other, and she understood that maybe there was a hope also in the present and that maybe not all was lost.

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**Did you arrive to the end of the chapter? Did you like it? What do you think will happen next? Let me know what you think, please :)**


	2. Chapter 2

** Hi! Here I am with chapter 2, I really have to thank you for all the reviews I received for the first chapter! I'm glad you liked the first chapter and I hope you'll aslo like this! See you at the end of the chapter!^^**

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**2. In this tug of war you'll always win**

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**Now there's gravel in our voices  
glass is shattered from the fight**

The Ball was finally over, but for Catherine the night that was going to come wouldn't have been a time of craved rest and comfort; on the contrary, alone in her bed even that night, like every night, she would have done nothing but think and cry. She reached her chambers and closed for a moment her eyes, thinking again about all the events just happened: it was hard to hold the tears until the moment of pure darkness when nobody could have seen them.

"His Majesty, the King!" said Lady Jane, entering the room, unable to hold her excitement.

The other ladies exchanged a surprised look and then all of them stared at their mistress, waiting for her orders. It had been at least two minutes before the Queen finally found the words; there wasn't astonishment or happiness on her face, just an expression that seemed indecipherable and which was just the mirror of the thoughts in her mind. She wasn't in fact understanding anything at all, that's the truth; she had to repeat the words in her mind to try to give them a sense, even if after all, that sudden visit of the King didn't have a sense. Maybe she had fallen asleep and she was just dreaming, maybe he was there just for a quick news or a free argument. And then there was that thin and fragile hope which was suggesting her that… Maybe Charles Brandon was right.

"Let him in" she finally said with a nod, trying to keep calm.

Lady Jane moved aside and the King entered the room with an indecipherable expression as well. Even though there was about ten people, the room fell suddenly silent, everyone stared at the King and the Queen who were staring at each other.

"Go out!" Henry suddenly yelled, not looking away from his wife, while the ladies, fighting between fear and curiosity, were forced to leave that promising scene.

But Henry wasn't there to spectacle, for that night there had been enough of that.

"Husband, what do I owe this pleasure for?" Catherine asked when they were left alone, covering the rumor of the door that was closing behind the last lady.

She tried to hold a smile that, despite everything, the only sight of the man she loved gave to her, and didn't dare to make a single step towards him, because she knew. It had been enough only a look to understand the feelings inside him that pushed him to make her that visit: his expression wasn't indecipherable at all, quite the contrary he seemed betrayed, angry, hurt. She knew that.

**In this tug of war, you'll always win  
even when I'm right**

"This isn't a courtesy visit" he clarified gritting his teeth and closing the eyes to try to calm the irrational anger that was taking more and more control over him.

"I didn't expect it" the Queen said, letting a bitter smile appear on her lips.

Henry stared at her in silence and his hard look softened seeing the tears in her eyes; they were hidden of course, but they were there. He could see them. Suddenly, he shook his head, trying to send away any kind of remorse: in front of her, he always felt lower, as a perfect butterfly she was the one to make him feel a worm with a simple look, but it wouldn't have happened that night. That was the night when the worm felt like accusing of something the butterfly.

"Save this useless irony, since as far as I see you are not so sad after all…" he replied harshly.

"What? I don't understand…" she said surprised, frowning.

"Of course, you don't understand. But I bet you understand the Duke of Suffolks' words perfectly instead…" he interrupted her in the same tone, with an absolutely joyless smile.

"We were just dancing…" she noted, even more surprised. When she had thought she could cause some jealousy to her husband, she didn't really believe that, and of course she couldn't have guessed a similar reaction.

"Do you know his reputation, don't you?" he asked rhetorically, interrupting her again and staring at her "You are my wife!" he exclaimed then, moving some steps towards her and taking her shoulderds.

Catherine widened her eyes and got lost in her husband's blue ones. It was a while since she had seen them so bright, it was a while since she had seen them sparkling such a way for her.

'**Cause you feed me fables from your hand  
with violent words and empty threats**

"Of course, I am your wife, Henry" she assured him, raising slowly a hand and touching his face "You don't have to worry, I haven't lovers unlike you… I love you" she said then honestly, without any trace of accuse in her voice.

But he heard that accuse. In the end, she made him feel a worm, anyway. And she was still a butterfly, the same beautiful butterfly that made him fall in love so many years before.

"That's not the point!" he said, pushing away her hands, but without leaving them "I… I love you too" he admitted then naturally, maybe not even really realizing what he was saying.

It should have been a surprise for her to hear those words after so much time, and yet for both of them in that moment it appeared normal and simple. Because love after all is a simple thing. In a few moments as a magic their lips met in a kiss and the enchantment was going to leave them like that: a kiss wasn't enough, both of them needed something else, more, they needed to meet up again each other. And they met up again that night between lost kisses and eternal love that was mixing with renewed desire. That night in the darkness, Catherine didn't fall asleep crying, but hold in the arms of the one who surely was the man of her life and she asked for nothing else but to be the woman of his.

What that night would have meant? She wasn't thinking about down, that night was her down, but she would have thought about it, because the real down arrived very soon. And to quote Bible, for Henry there was "Nihil novum sub sole".

She fell asleep this way, between sweet whispered words she had been waiting for so long, but she woke up some hours after with the only ones she would have never wanted to hear.

"It was a mistake, Catherine. It mustn't happen again"

…**And it's sick that all these battles  
are what keeps me satisfied**

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**What do you think? They made a very big step...Yeah, I know, he also ruined everything... Don't kill me! LoL What will happen now? Will Henry still think about divorce? I really would like to know your opinion! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**3. Just gonna stand there and hear me cry…**

**Just gonna stand there and watch me burn…  
but that's all right because I like the way it hurts**

"Your Majesty, have you asked to see me?" asked Charles, bowing to him as he entered the room.

The King opened his eyes and looked at the new arrival, even though he didn't seem to really see him. With the hands joined under the chin, he seemed halfway a pray and a deep consideration, but in reality God was the last of his thoughts at that moment and the previous meeting with the Secretary had already signed the decision he had made. There wasn't nothing more to think about, and stop thinking was the only thing in that moment that he would have liked to do.

"Henry?" the duke called him again, not obtaining an answer.

"Come in, Your Grace" the King said waking up from his daydream, motioning him to seat in front of his seat.

"Did you like last night ball?" Charles asked with nonchalance, curious to know if his idea had had some positive result. Yes, positive, because he was a big supporter of the Queen, most of all because he knew that she was the only woman who could really made his best friend happy.

"Truth be told… I didn't like the fact you had danced with the woman who is still my wife" Henry admitted with a sigh, feeling again growing inside of him the unexplainable anger that he had felt seeing them dancing together.

"You are jealous, aren't you? But it was just a dance…" the other man immediately said, while a pleased smile suddenly appeared on his face.

"I didn't ask you to come to speak about this…" the King curtailed with a freezing look "I've spent the night in the Queen's chambers" revealed then in a whisper, looking down.

Charles couldn't have been able to mask his thoughts this time if only he hadn't known what exactly think. He simply stood with widen eyes and raised eyebrows: a thing was hoping in a possible rapprochement, another was finding out a real one. Then, he tried slowly to regain a sort of straight face and most of all to hide the curiosity that was beating his tongue, because it took just a look from his best friend to understand that he, King or not, didn't know himself what to think.

"It's a very good thing.. Maybe you should…" he finally murmured breaking the silence.

But it was the sound of Henry's hand on the table to definitely break it.

"No!" the King suddenly screamed "No" he repeated then trying to control himself "It's not a good thing! It must finish now, such thing mustn't happen again!"

"Frankly, I don't under stand you!" the duke said astonished "Then why did you bed her?" aked then in a defiant tone, convinced that he wouldn't have answered; in his opinion he would have of course got angry, but he wouldn't have answered, even if it would have helped him to think it over.

"Because I love her, dam nit!" simply whispered Henry instead.

There was no need to think over certain things, there is no need to think over feeling, as there is to need to think over the hot tears that were suddenly streaming on his cheeks. He covered his face with the hands, trying to hide them, but on the contrary the weeping seemed only to grow. Charles had never seenhim in such a condition, sometimes he saw him disappointed, often furious, but never so… desperate! He stood up and slowly approached him, putting his hands on the King's shoulders.

"Thank you Charles, I needed someone to talk to… Now I just want to be alone" Henry said raising his head a bit, sending him away.

He saw the duke leaving the room and then yelled at his servant that he didn't want to be disturbed. After some moments he found himself again alone and, with the tears that were keeping on coming out, he took his head between his hands, starting to ask himself if his Queen had already received the news.

He hadn't even said her goodbye.

**Just gonna stand there and hear me cry…  
but that's all right because I love the way you lie**

During the twenty years she spent at his side, Catherine had learnt to expert everything: mistresses, charges, public and private humiliations, but there still were times when her husband took her by surprise. As she hadn't expected the new curtains for the joust in the name of their love years before, now she hadn't expected such a step from Henry in his insanity. It hadn't been enough the previous night, it hadn't been enough her endless prays to take him back again to reason.

"Your Majesty, the King has ordered you to leave the Court before the end of the month… You could go in his residence at The More and you could take with you all the servants you may need.. And besides…"

Thomas Cromwell's words suddenly blew away when he finally looked up to the Queen: she was smiling and it was a bitter smile, simple compromise of the feeling she was feeling inside. She would have wanted to cry of course, but also to laugh for the irony that the contrast between the title at the beginning of the sentence and the contents of it. But she just didn't do anything, she would have never done anything in front of anyone, especially not in front of a enemy like the Secretary, who was still staring at her unable to continue.

"And besides?" she said then, with the masochist urgencies to discover the other things she hadn't expected before.

"Besides…" Cromwell said still a bit hesitant "You must return the jewels always belonged to the Queens of England"

Catherine widened her eyes hearing that command, then took in her hand the necklace around herneck, letting shine the rings on her fingers: they weren't just jewels, they were a symbol, the last symbol of appearance and hope. She closed her eyes for a moment and then she suddenly opened them, flashing of obscure determination that seemed almost in contrast with her light blue eyes.

"They are my jewels!" she exclaimed in a crushing whisper "I won't give them away to adorn a woman who is the scandal of Christendom!" added referring of course to the one who was going to take her place.

No once could have insulted the woman of the King with a so disarming naturalness. Thomas stared at her astonished but he didn't try to contradict her, in fact he found himself nodding almost unwillingly. Then, he left the room, not before making to her a deep bow.

Maybe it could be the last one she received, she found herself thinking looking him go away, maybe the next time he would have come he would have taken her away _her_ precious jewels. And yet, when she remained alone, jewels and titles were not the centre of her thoughts, but as always her husband was it. He was letting her go, he was denying their love, their beautiful daughter, their memories, just for a woman like Anne Boleyn and the tempting promise of a male heir. She felt the tears on her cheeks before she could even try to hold them, she felt hurt, betrayed, used and the disappointment to had been deceived again was too much to contain it.

That was what they had become: he a liar to have lied to her, she a masochist to continue to love him anyway.

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**Hi everyone! It has been so long since the last updated! I hope you still like this story:)**

**So, what will happen now? Will there be a happy ending for our beloved King and Queen or not? Let me know what you think:)**


	4. Chapter 4

Hi! I'm back with this story too:) This time I won't apologize for my late, because I'm unforgivable! LoL I hope you like the chapter:)

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**4. In smoke with all our memories**

**So maybe I'm a masochist  
I try to run but I don't wanna ever leave  
**

A bag, then another, it was all already ready for the imminent departure that couldn't be delayed more; she didn't have a big choice actually, because just few things were left to her and that little she had, she had to take it all, since she wouldn't have entered that Palace anymore. She knew that too. She would have left very early the next morning with a great number of servants and ladies anyway, and that would have been her last night as a Queen, without the King at her side of course.

"Your Majesty!" called her loyal Elizabeth.

Catherine stopped and turned slowly, she hadn't realized it but she had reached the door with all the intention to leave her rooms.

"It is night… You should not go around the Palace, it is dark" the lady said with an apprehensive tone.

"Next time I will stay in my Queen rooms, then" the Queen retorted more sharply than she had wanted.

There wouldn't have been a next time and that would have been the first and also the last time she would have broken the royal protocol.

Elizabeth Darrell bowed her head at that bitter irony, to approach then the rocking chair and take quickly a green cloack.

"You should take this my lady… It is cold" she said hinting a shy smile and putting the cloth on the older woman's shoulder.

She smiled back and murmuring a thanksgiving, started her way to the unknown again.

Because that is what the Palace at night was for her: unknown. Whichever entertainment, that she anyway hadn't attended, had already finished and everything seemed lost in silence. Elizabeth was right: it was dark and cold, really too much. She clinged to the cloack and moved the candle to try to make the way brighter: that palace was a real labyrinth and though she had lived there for almost twenty years didn't help her to make it less complicated.

"Who knows what Henry is doing…" she found herself thinking while she was going on with uncertain steps; she touched with the palm of a hand the wall, she looked carefully the stairs and the rooms she was walking in front of, she even smiled to the guards and the few night servants she met, trying greedily to build some last memories, until any sense went to get lost far away, mixing with the memories she already had. Until suddenly the candle went to enlighten a familiar figure seated on the floor with the back against the wall; maybe it was a mere hallucination but the more she approached it, the more it seemed real. It must have been real.

"Henry!" she found herself calling, surprised by that apparition.

"Catherine.." the figure murmured, more desperate than surprised.

That was the way the Queen saw the King, as a ghost in the light of a candle.

That was the way the King saw the Queen, as an angel in the dark.

"Henry…" she called him again, covering the distance between them and bending to seat beside him for how much the bulky dress allowed her "I thought you were…"

"Hunting?" he completed with an ironic smile "I had come back and no one at Court had noticed it yet… I did not want the Court to notice it"

"You did not want to let the Court know, or you did not want to let me know?" she asked bitterly, understanding immediately the real meaning of his words.

Henry simply smiled, without saying anything, without even trying to confirm that excuse that seemed false also to him.

**Til the walls are goin' up  
in smoke with all our memories**

And then suddenly he heard a sob, fragment of a choke crying, and it wasn't sure which sovereign it escaped to. Maybe both of them were feeling like crying or maybe none of them and that lament had existed only in their heads, memories of far crying. The death of their first born, little Henry, and then all the others one by one, the King's mistresses then and the King's great matter. But it wasn't that what they wated to remember: it wasn't pain what Henry wanted to leave to her, it wasn't regret what Catherine wanted to take with her.

"The day of our marriage, you were so beautiful…" Henry whispered while a smile formed on her lips "The walks, the balls, and Mary's birth… And the curtains of the joust, do you remember that?"

An unseen tear escaped the Queen's eyes and a sob escaped her lips this time for real: "We were happy"

"I do not want you to leave…" the King murmured, moving a hand in the dark and finding immediately the one of my wife.

"You are the one that wants me to go away" it was her tough answer.

Henry aprroached her more, until she took gently her in her arms, as if he was afraid to hurt her, as if he hadn't done it enough yet.

"What should I do? I love you, Catalina, as the first day I met you and the thought that my brother had you made me crazy for all these years… I do not want you to leave, stay with me…"

Tears were rolling down her cheeks and the words came out of his heart, before her brain gave her consent. Because it was what happened to him when he had her in front of him: all the accusations he made vanished in the sky of her eyes and the only thing she could feel was love and fear, fear of living without her.

"I still love her too…" she murmured back, vaguely uncertain and not for her feelings, but because she knew that the beautiful words she was hearing now in the dark, would have disappeared at daylight again.

"Stay with me tonight" he whispered with a voice burning of desire, starting to kiss her and making his hands loosing on her still covered body, that after twenty years remained still someway mysterious for him.

"As a last night?" she said taking his hands for a moment, looking him into the eyes.

Henry didn't answer and Catherine didn't ask more, letting herself go again and again.


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